"I think he thought I was Bruce Wayne because I was dressed as Bruce Wayne," he joked.

"So he talked to me like I was Bruce Wayne and I just went along with it, really. It was quite entertaining. I had no idea at the time that he would think about running for president."

Christian Bale, left, and Sibi Blazic arrive at the world premiere of Vice (Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP)

Bale piled on a reported 40 lbs to play Cheney. Previously the actor underwent dramatic weight for his role in The Machinist, before piling on the pounds again to play Batman.

However, speaking at the premiere, he said he probably won't endure such dramatic weight fluctuations for roles in future.

Adam McKay is the director and writer of Vice (Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP)

“Everything hurts now, I’ve got to really start thinking about if I can manage this again and the answer is probably no," he told the Press Association.

Cheney played a key role in the White House’s response to the September 11 attacks and the ensuing war on terror and Bale researched him extensively ahead of his performance.

He said he was surprised by aspects of his character and suggested he would never have pursued a career in politics if it was not for his wife, Lynne.

“He was a wonderful family man, he was a great dad, he was an avid reader, he has a brain like a vice, he constantly reads history, he was a very laidback youth, he would have been very happy to be a lineman in Wyoming if he hadn’t met Lynne, who said no, that doesn’t cut it, you need some ambition," he said.

“What would have been if they hadn’t met?”

Bale hopes the former vice president will find something to enjoy in the film.

“Hopefully he’ll certainly find it entertaining, at the very least. He’s very thick-skinned, he has no remorse or regrets about what he’s done, he always says I’d do it again in a minute," he said.

“He doesn’t back down. He doesn’t apologise about anything so I think he’s a thick-skinned guy and I’d love to hear his thoughts. He’s a very intelligent individual, no matter what your thoughts are about him.”

Vice, written and directed by Adam McKay, stars Carell as former US secretary of defence Donald Rumsfeld, Adams as Cheney’s wife, Lynne, and Sam Rockwell as President Bush.

McKay, who worked with Bale on 2015’s The Big Short, which examined the 2007 financial crisis, hopes the film can help reevaluate the Bush administration’s legacy.

He said: “I feel there’s an open debate right now in the United States, there’s a lot of confusion about where we are, how did we get here.

“With this movie, first and foremost, it’s a character portrait and brilliantly done by Christian Bale, Amy Adams and Sam Rockwell and everyone.

“But second off, it reminds us, we went through this. There’s nothing very debatable about it, it all happened. And it’s going to be funny to see some people want to debate it, but it happened.

“I just feel like we all need to have a sure footing about how we got here through history.”